


the sound of her name

by ev3rlor3



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Tension, They're just friends, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, but they are totally not just friends, can these lesbians just admit they love eachother already, did i say PININGGGG?, highschool au but they are seniors & both 18
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ev3rlor3/pseuds/ev3rlor3
Summary: “Azula....”Ty Lee said her name like a question, the word hanging still in the air, thick like the tension of the stalemate forming between them.As she shifted away from her own sleeping bag, she lowered her eyes, looking anywhere but the other girl. Ty Lee didn’t know what she’d do if she looked up to find those golden eyes staring directly into hers. She could feel Azula's gaze on her, a heat on her back that made her spine tingle.“Are you sure?” she breathed, surprised at the other girl's request.
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Mai (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Tyzula
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	the sound of her name

**Author's Note:**

> Forgive me if this is bad guys it's literally my first fanfiction since middle school. I just HAD to write this though i need to express my tyzula brainrot somehow. This ch is sweet w lots of pining. But Uhm do not worry, you’re gonna get all that fire, heat, and angst in the next chapters. I’m planning a rollercoaster ride. I just read rise of Kyoshi and learned about how important hair is to noble firebenders, and I couldn’t get the picture of Ty Lee and Azula doing each other's hair out of my head. The YEARNING!

“Azula....” 

Ty Lee said her name like a question, the word hanging still in the air, thick like the tension of the stalemate forming between them. 

As she shifted away from her own sleeping bag, she lowered her eyes, looking anywhere but the other girl. Ty Lee didn’t know what she’d do if she looked up to find those golden eyes staring directly into hers. She could feel Azula's gaze on her, a heat on her back that made her spine tingle. 

“Are you sure?” she breathed, surprised at the other girl's request. 

“Did you not hear me?” Of course I’m sure. It’s just hair”

Ty Lee wondered if that were really true. She remembered how important her hair was to her friend, and all the times she’d seen the other girl viciously swat away hands that tried to get anywhere near it. She remembered the other girl’s panic when their friend, Mai, passively reached her hand towards it when they were kids. 

Azula’s hair was important to her. It was her pride. It held the parts of her she tried to put on display just as much as the parts of her she never wanted to show anyone. For her to just lay it all out in front of someone was unheard of. It was rare. 

But now, there were no reaching hands or prying eyes. Mai lay sleeping on the other side of the room. Just the two of them, illuminated only by the glow of the moon through Azula’s half-open blinds. It was just the two of them like it had always been, by each other's side through anything and everything. Ty Lee wanted it to be like that forever. 

There’s something unifying about the quiet of 3 am, where time ever-so-slightly bends. The world is still. At 3 am, people lose the inhibitions that tie them into the ceaseless carousel of the everyday. There’s a reason why all magic is at its strongest then. The hour becomes its own world, another dimension. Anything feels possible. 

Or maybe that’s just the alcohol talking, Ty Lee thought to herself. Part of her was still being kept afloat by the after party buzz that came from a night of dancing and screaming along to any and every song that was playing. But part of her was feeling something else, a flutter in her stomach that flared up when she was close to her friend like this. 

She felt it as they drove to school, Azula’s left hand on the steering wheel while the other rested gingerly on the center console, brow furrowed in concentration at the road ahead of her. She felt it in class when the teacher announced that they could pick their own partners for a project, as Azula’s eyes flitted immediately to her. She felt when Azula laughed, a cackle that others might find maniacal, but Ty Lee thought was amazing. Sometimes, if she was really laughing, Azula’s nose crinkled up, and it looked so…. well, endearing that Ty Lee couldn't help but laugh too. 

She felt it as they were going home that night, stumbling through the back doorway of Azula’s house. Swaying on her feet, Azula had reached out to grab something, anything, to steady herself. Her hands latched onto Ty Lee’s arm, her entire body pressing up against the taller girl. Ty Lee’s breath hitched. Every cell in her body was screaming as she felt the other girl melt into her side. And there it was again, the fluttering. It started as a tug deep in her stomach, whirling around until she could feel in her ribcage, ready to burst. 

She wondered if Azula felt it too. 

As she pulled herself out of her thoughts, Ty Lee plopped down next to Azula onto the rug, making a soft thud in the shaggy maroon fabric. She didn’t move, eyes fixed downwards at the brush in her hands. It was pretty, much nicer than anything Ty Lee owned herself. Sharp black bristles stuck out from a base that looked to be plated with gold. A flower was carved into the handle, it’s thin curved leaves resembling that of a tiger lily. In the center, a red gem gleamed. 

Azula never talked about where she got it, but Ty Lee always wondered if it came from her mom before she left. If it had, Azula would never admit it.

Realizing she got distracted again, Ty Lee wracked her brain for something, anything she could say. Usually, conversation came natural to her, but not tonight. 

Unexpectedly, Azula broke the silence. 

“Brush it, please?” She said, her voice taking on a tone that Ty Lee rarely heard her friend use. 

There was an emotion there that Ty Lee couldn’t quite place. It was almost soft, the words flowing out like feathers instead of the sharp knives usually at the edge of her tongue. Feathers aren’t supposed to be dangerous, but Azula’s words hit Ty Lee twice as hard. The butterflies were rattling in her stomach, yet again threatening to overflow. Azula spoke like she was entrusting Ty Lee with a precious secret. Without saying a word, she nodded, moving to sit behind her friend. 

Even sitting down, Ty Lee was taller, so Azula didn’t need to slouch for the other girl to reach her hair. Ty Lee sat so close behind her that when she moved her arms up, her elbows brushed against the shorter girl’s back. She was glad Azula couldn’t see her, because she blushed slightly, hands shaking as she untied the band that held her friend’s hair perfectly into place. 

Beautiful black hair spilled over Azula’s shoulders, the light of the moon catching in its peaks made it look brushed with silver. It smelled oddly like cinnamon, and Ty Lee had to restrain herself from hugging the girl from behind and burying her face in it. The sent was intoxicating, and it reminded her of the safety of a home she’d never had. She thought about what it would be like to be close enough to really smell it, what it would be like to nestle her nose into the other girl's neck. Ty Lee drew out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, long and slow as if that breath was the only thing holding herself back from doing something she’d regret. 

“Well?” Azula’s hissed, trying to sound impatient. Her tone would have worked on anyone else, but Ty Lee knew her well enough to hear the slight waver at the end. Was she nervous? 

Ty Lee brushed slowly and methodically, starting and the ends and working her way up towards the roots. Each stroke of the brush was slow and careful, as if one wrong move would spook the girl in front of her. Azula’s hair was the softest thing she’d ever felt, smooth like the silk of her friend’s pajamas. Ty Lee wished that Azula would let her do this every night. 

When she was finished, Ty Lee ran her hands through the other girl’s hair, admiring her work, nails slightly scratching her scalp. She could’ve sworn she heard a small, contented sigh, but maybe that was just wishful thinking. After all, Azula said it herself: it was just hair, and they were just friends. 

After she was done, Ty Lee moved out from behind Azula, scooting across from her. She was aware of every little sound in the room, every breath of the girl across from her. She was aware of the heat in her body at the area where their knees touched as they were sitting cross-legged on the floor. She was so close that if they moved their heads just a couple inches more, their foreheads would be touching. So close, that the taller girl wondered if Azula could hear the fast-paced bump of her heart in her chest, the whirring of the butterflies in her stomach. 

Ty Lee smiled, not the fake kind that she gave the boys who tried to chat her up, but one that reached all the way to her eyes. She would never tell the other girl, but those kinds of smiles seemed to only come out for her. 

No one ever saw Azula with her hair down. “I look better this way,” Azula said, whenever anybody asked why she wore her hair up every day. 

But here they were, in the 3 am haze, on the floor in their pajamas, and Ty Lee thought she looked especially beautiful. Loose strands of hair framed Azula’s face, giving her sharp features a striking element of softness. There was a rouge strand that caught on her cheek, which made her even cuter. Without even thinking, Ty Lee reached across to brush it out of the way. Lightly, her fingers raked over her friend’s face to gently tuck the hair behind the shorter girl’s ear. After she finished, her hand lingered, not ready to move from the soft embrace of Azula’s cheek. For the first time all night, Ty Lee raised her head to look directly at Azula’s eyes. Like her hand on Azula’s cheek, the gaze lasted a couple seconds too long, and then continued. Time turned to molasses, each second passing with a delicious slowness that was terrifying and invigorating at the same time. Ty Lee’s eyes flitted down to the other girl’s lips, which were pink and full, but slightly chapped, and then back up towards Azula’s eyes, bright golden orbs that had never left her face. 

We’re drunk, Ty Lee thought, She probably won’t even remember this in the morning. She felt a pull, an invisible magnet calling her forwards, towards those striking eyes and perfect lips. 

She could have done it, she almost did it. She wanted this. 

Yet, there was no drunken haze clouding Azula’s gaze. If anything, it was startlingly alert. The glance seemed stunned, waiting to see what Ty Lee might do. 

The silence between them bled a thousand words, each girl pouring everything she had into the empty space between them. 

Ty Lee would never know it, but the girl across from her hoped Ty Lee could read through the expression on her face. Part of Azula, one that she kept hidden away at the very back of her mind, hoped that the girl she knew so well would look at her and understand everything she wanted to say but couldn’t. 

The truth was, Azula lived for the other girl’s touch. She lived for those smiles that made her insides melt into a puddle. She was still reeling from the last one she got, just seconds ago. Whenever Ty Lee smiled at her, it felt like the gentle kiss of the sun on a summer day. It was warm and golden, like getting a bear hug from someone you dearly missed. 

Azula couldn’t help but hope that her friend would move her hand down, slightly, to cradle her jaw. Azula couldn’t help but hope that the other girl would lean over, her face getting closer and closer until she could feel the soft embrace of her lips against her own. She chided herself for having those thoughts. After all, she had to be careful. Ty Lee would never feel the same way. 

Yet, Azula let herself wonder; What if? Ty lee was the first one to reach out, so maybe that meant something? And it right now, it almost seems like she’s going to reach further, and close the final gap between them. 

But, the balance of time at 3 am is delicate, the dropping of a single pin able to turn the tides of a whole future. There’s a shift, a charge in the air that was different than it had been just a second ago. Something changes.

If either of them moved just an inch further, it would be a transgression that would topple over the scales they had tried so hard to settle. Ty Lee wanted it so bad, but she was afraid. Afraid of not being able to go back. Afraid that if she gave in too much, she would never return. She had to protect herself. A rejection would hurt more than even the most searing betrayal. 

Ty Lee was the first one to reach out, but she was also the first to pull away.  
Azula was stunned. 

Every color flashed through the other girl’s eyes before they faded into a guarded, distant, grey. It was a grey Azula had been starting to see more and more, and she hated it. The retreat of Ty Lee’s hand hurt, a pinching feeling deep in Azula’s chest. She asked herself how she could be so stupid, to think that there was a chance Ty Lee wanted what she did. Azula opened her mouth. She pleaded with herself to say something, anything, but she couldn’t. Instead, she watched as any hope she had slipped between the cracks of her fingers and disappeared as if it were never there. 

“Goodnight, Azula,” Ty Lee said, slinking back to her own sleeping bag. 

“Sweet dreams.” She added, quieter, under her breath. She hoped Azula hadn’t heard her. After all, she’d almost gone far enough already. Ty Lee fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched her pillow, eager to burry her slip in control under a blanket of dreams. 

For Azula, sleep didn’t come for a long time, and when it did, her dreams were filled with the ghost of long, slender fingers raking through her hair, and the undeniable warmth of that golden smile.


End file.
